Bright sunny day brings out lots of members......

Another large meeting, thirty of us this week!  I think this time last year we were hard pushed  if we averaged  fifteen members a week at winter meetings.  The combination of a more welcoming venue and a little bit of heating plus new members are all contributing factors.  I thought I'd share with you this photo of one of our very first Group meetings in Jan's house approximately six years ago, when we were known as Periana Stitchers.  Only three of us are still current members, myself, and Kath on the left and Jan on the right.  How much the group has grown and achieved since then!

Back to the present..... at this week's meeting Michele taught members how to make fabric postcards using recycled materials, threads and embellishments.

 Ana Maria, Michele centre, and Mercedes making postcards

one of  Maureen's cards in progress

one of Bridget's cards in progress

 Mercedes' cards in progress, above and below

one of  Michele's class sample

Mercedes, who joined the Group this week, comes from  Periana, where she has been introduced to patchwork by Jan who holds a session on Friday evenings for two hours as part of the Women's Association  in Periana.  Mercedes is keen to learn more so has joined our regular Tuesday Group where she can be creative for several hours more.

Work is still continuing on some of the Mystery Quilts. Rozanne approached me suggesting I go and have a look at what Cath was doing.   Cath was sitting very quietly concentrating on machining and  is making a beautiful job of quilting her project, using both her free-motion skills and echo quilting around the butterfly motifs in the setting triangles.  I can't wait to see this quilt finished Cath.  Well done!

Two more cushions have been completed from the recent Chopkey workshop

Jill's cushion above and Pam's below

 Apparently when Pam's husband saw the outer panel fabric on this cushion, Pam says he he liked it so much he wants her to make him a quilt now!  So Pam, who bought 2 meters of the fabric  from me at one of our SalesTuesdays, is now planning her next big project.

Yvonne has finished another of her lovely stupendous stitching panels, a detailed area of which is shown below

This very popular Internet workshop, by Carol Ann Waugh can be found on the Craftsy web site HERE.  Quite a few of our Group members have signed up to the online class, and photos of their projects will be uploaded as they are brought in.

Jenny showed us the class sample ready for her workshop on Double Wedding Ring, which is scheduled for Tuesday May 7.

Elsewhere in the meeting ladies were working away at their own projects.  The two Sue's were getting down to the intricate task of quilling, Sue Stead giving Sue Payne her first taste of the technique to produce this pretty card.

and SueP showed us her little finished cross-stitch picture

Christine worked on a quilting project called Cats and Dogs.   Christine has machine pieced the quilt background, then hand appliqued the cats dogs and other motifs, and is now adding hand quilting, and says it's the first time she has worked on a purchased quilt kit, where  pattern and instructions are provided along with fabric and cutting directions. 

Amanada who joined the Group very recently, learnt to crochet under Eleanor's expert help, is well on the way with her first crochet project, a scarf to match her winter wardrobe she says,

and ChrisL, another recent new Member, showed us two of her hand-crochet hand bags

After the Diversity group "play-day" last week using transfer paints and dyes, the girls held a show and tell meeting where it was very interesting to see the results after we had ironed off all our papers onto fabric. 

Yvonne explaining one of her techniques

Carole's scrappy illusion project is at the stage where decisions need to be made about where to place each block, and much discussion went on regarding the best layout.  Carole misinterpreted the cutting instructions, inadvertantly doubling up on the number of the blocks she made , so now she's discovered she has enough to make a bed quilt for her son, instead of the originally planned lap quilt!

When Jenny was asked what two little embroidered cushions were to be used for that she brought along to show us, her answer was quite unexpected.   Apparently Jenny's bedhead and a matching wall mirror have a trellis type design, where she says dust is attracted onto the ledges.  Now we all know how much we "love" housework, well Jenny has come up with a novel way of avoiding this area of dusting.  These two little digitised-embroidery cushions she has made are to fit into the openings in the trellis work so covering the ledges.  The latest two are shown here for the mirror, I think we need to see photos of them in situ please Jenny!!

Before I sign off this week, I must say how good it was to see Eloise back again for a short while, I hope Peter "bullies" you into coming again regularly Ely!  

And finally to welcome our latest new member Brenda, who a few of us met at the Sitges Patchwork and Quilting exhibition in Barcelona in 2010.  Brenda's English Stitching Group was displaying several pieces of work at the exhibition and as we were admiring and discussing them, Brenda heard "English voices" and came over to investigate and introduce herself.  Brenda, lives in the UK but visits our area regularly, and hopes to attend future meetings when she is here.

I have just been informed that next Tuesday is International Women's Day and our meeting room is hosting a meeting and slide show with light refreshments later.  Regrettably there will be no Stitching meeting, so I´ll be back again in two weeks, hope you join us then.   Happy stitching..... Rachel